Graffiti has been linked to crime ever since social scientists promoted their 'broken windows theory,' which holds that so-called petty crimes like graffiti, left unchecked, lead to more serious offending. Graffiti crime is a scourge costing cities the world over millions of dollars. New Zealand's Christchurch City Council faces a million-dollar graffiti problem. But in what may be a graffiti management first, they're using Salesforce Service Cloud to track and map taggers and their unsightly handiwork. And it's helping police to drag offenders before the courts.

In 2011, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake devastated Christchurch, New Zealand's second largest city. One hundred and eighty five people were killed and the cost of rebuilding put at $15 billion. Like many business and residential homes, Christchurch City's main building was severely damaged and off limits for a year. However, in the chaos of post-quake recovery, Council was never busier. Information was power and comfort to the city's traumatised residents. Rapid activation of new IT services put cloud-based systems in the spotlight.

Cain Duell leads a team of business analysts, part of Christchurch City Council's information management and communication technology operation. He spends his time matching the needs of Council business units with technology. "We stood up lots of solutions quickly. Cloud services are the way to do things fast. But services must be tried and trusted – we can't stand up something that wobbles. Innovation is the other consideration – we must follow important shifts, such as mobile," he said.

Council got its first taste of Salesforce Sales Cloud with a funds and grants system it developed to manage $21 million worth of annual grants to events, sports and community groups. A list of considerations got it thinking about CRM: easing the funding application process; streamlining funding from initial application and grant stages to benefits analysis; integrating document management and financial systems; and complying with New Zealand's Public Recordkeeping Act.

"We assessed many applications and found that most were immature or US-centric. We needed something different," said Duell. "Customers wanted to lodge applications online. CRM would handle the workflow, which goes through many sets of hands: assessors, advisors, peer reviewers, approval bodies, and even councillors. We also like to measure benefits delivered by Council funded events."

Service Cloud accounts and case objects manage funding applications uploaded to the Council self-service portal, called Communities. Here, applicants are able to view the status of their applications and upload supporting documentation. How was the process managed before? Spread sheets. "We had no holistic view; no single source of truth," said Duell.

Council built on its early success with Salesforce, creating an earthquake damage register for Council buildings, called Claimsforce, which profiles Council's 2,700 facilities – pools, libraries, houses and other public amenities – and workflow related to engineering assessments, loss adjusters, and insurance claims. "Development and rollout was completed within three months. From an IT point of view it looks after itself. It's intuitive and users find their way around it themselves. And customisation is about clicks, not code, so we can do most of it ourselves," said Duell.

Tagforce is another example of Council's quick-fire app development. Duell said Tagforce took one third of the time it took to build most other critical projects. "Integration took longer. It's usually the other way around," said Duell. Christchurch-based senior sergeant Glenn Nalder said police had apprehended many people from the Tagforce list provided by Council.

AMP was founded 167 years ago on the simple idea that every individual should have the power and ability to control his or her life. AMP to becoming more agile and customer centric than ever before. It is also shaking up the experience of its advisers and reducing the burden of administration and compliance to let them focus on servicing their customers. All with the help of Salesforce.